Colonial Union Ambassador Ode Abumwe and her team are used to life on the lower end of the diplomatic ladder. But when a high-profile diplomat goes missing, Abumwe and her team are last minute replacements on a mission critical to the Colonial Union’s future. As the team works to pull off their task, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson discovers there’s more to the story of the missing diplomats than anyone expected... a secret that could spell war for humanity.

3 out of 5 stars

Whole Series – Just OK

By
Michael
on
05-19-13

The Collapsing Empire

The Interdependency, Book 1

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
13,614

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,779

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,739

Our universe is ruled by physics, and faster-than-light travel is not possible - until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transports us to other worlds, around other stars. Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war - and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

3 out of 5 stars

Definitely not my favorite scalzi

By
pat
on
03-25-17

Redshirts

A Novel with Three Codas

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
16,802

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
15,751

Story

4 out of 5 stars
15,729

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship
Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the facts that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces; (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations; and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

5 out of 5 stars

Clever, creative, and FUN!

By
Kent
on
04-18-13

Fuzzy Nation

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton,
John Scalzi - introduction

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,014

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,146

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,153

In John Scalzi's re-imagining of H. Beam Piper's 1962 sci-fi classic
Little Fuzzy, written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesnt care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorps headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporations headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, thats not up for discussion.

4 out of 5 stars

Short, sweet, and satisfying storytelling.

By
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
on
05-11-11

Lock In (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,539

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
11,763

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
11,740

Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever, and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.

5 out of 5 stars

Fun! Things you might want to know:

By
Alexis
on
08-29-14

Agent to the Stars

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,986

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,005

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,995

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish. So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal. Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agents.

4 out of 5 stars

Hollywood Agent Represents Stinky Aliens

By
Bryan
on
04-22-11

The B-Team

The Human Division, Episode 1

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
William Dufris

Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,143

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,036

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,044

Colonial Union Ambassador Ode Abumwe and her team are used to life on the lower end of the diplomatic ladder. But when a high-profile diplomat goes missing, Abumwe and her team are last minute replacements on a mission critical to the Colonial Union’s future. As the team works to pull off their task, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson discovers there’s more to the story of the missing diplomats than anyone expected... a secret that could spell war for humanity.

3 out of 5 stars

Whole Series – Just OK

By
Michael
on
05-19-13

The Collapsing Empire

The Interdependency, Book 1

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
13,614

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,779

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,739

Our universe is ruled by physics, and faster-than-light travel is not possible - until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transports us to other worlds, around other stars. Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war - and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

3 out of 5 stars

Definitely not my favorite scalzi

By
pat
on
03-25-17

Redshirts

A Novel with Three Codas

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
16,802

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
15,751

Story

4 out of 5 stars
15,729

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship
Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the facts that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces; (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations; and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

5 out of 5 stars

Clever, creative, and FUN!

By
Kent
on
04-18-13

Fuzzy Nation

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton,
John Scalzi - introduction

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,014

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,146

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,153

In John Scalzi's re-imagining of H. Beam Piper's 1962 sci-fi classic
Little Fuzzy, written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesnt care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorps headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporations headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, thats not up for discussion.

4 out of 5 stars

Short, sweet, and satisfying storytelling.

By
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
on
05-11-11

Lock In (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,539

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
11,763

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
11,740

Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever, and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.

5 out of 5 stars

Fun! Things you might want to know:

By
Alexis
on
08-29-14

Agent to the Stars

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,986

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
10,005

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,995

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish. So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal. Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agents.

4 out of 5 stars

Hollywood Agent Represents Stinky Aliens

By
Bryan
on
04-22-11

The Android's Dream

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Wil Wheaton

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
9,485

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
8,624

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
8,620

A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most unusual way. To avoid war, Earth's government must find an equally unusual object: A type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony. To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero and hacker extraordinaire.

5 out of 5 stars

Philip K Dick meets Douglas Adams

By
James
on
07-26-11

The God Engines

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Christopher Lane

Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
444

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
384

Story

4 out of 5 stars
385

Captain Ean Tephe is a man of faith, whose allegiance to his lord and to his ship is uncontested. The Bishopry Militant knows this — and so, when it needs a ship and crew to undertake a secret, sacred mission to a hidden land, Tephe is the captain to whom the task is given....

4 out of 5 stars

Original Concept, Somber Tone

By
Michael
on
01-30-15

Miniatures

The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Khristine Hvam,
Peter Ganim,
Luke Daniels,
and others

Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,346

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,246

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,252

The ex-planet Pluto has a few choice words about being thrown out of the solar system. A listing of alternate histories tells you all the various ways Hitler has died. A lawyer sues an interplanetary union for dangerous working conditions. And four artificial intelligences explain, in increasingly worrying detail, how they plan not to destroy humanity. Welcome to
Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi.

5 out of 5 stars

Small doses of "Scalzian" humor

By
Andre Wallace Simonsen
on
01-05-17

The Dispatcher

By:
John Scalzi

Narrated by:
Zachary Quinto

Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
22,240

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
20,695

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
20,639

Zachary Quinto - best known for his role as the Nimoy-approved Spock in the recent Star Trek reboot and the menacing, power-stealing serial killer, Sylar, in
Heroes - brings his well-earned sci-fi credentials and simmering intensity to this audio-exclusive novella from master storyteller John Scalzi. One day, not long from now, it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone - 999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. How? We don't know.

5 out of 5 stars

Good Grief This Was Good

By
Matthew
on
11-09-16

Steel World

Undying Mercenaries, Book 1

By:
B. V. Larson

Narrated by:
Mark Boyett

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
8,801

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
8,162

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
8,164

In the 20th century Earth sent probes, transmissions, and welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed. The Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast Empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn't the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers....

5 out of 5 stars

Classic Space Opera

By
Don Gilbert
on
12-05-13

All Systems Red

By:
Martha Wells

Narrated by:
Kevin R. Free

Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
4,461

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
4,141

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
4,141

All Systems Red is the tense first science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of
Westworld,
Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans.

Twelve-year-old Zero is traveling with 20,000 people for 105 years to colonize a new planet. Everyone is in stasis, so they'll be safe during the trip, but when Zero's pod malfunctions it wakes him early, like 105 years early. At first he's excited to be the only one awake - he has the entire ship to himself, so he can go anywhere and see and do and eat anything he wants - but when a family of space pirates show up, trying to hijack the ship and kidnap the colonizers, Zero has to think fast and find a way to stop them all on his own.

4 out of 5 stars

Passengers movie with space pirates

By
Kingsley
on
12-07-18

Alien: Covenant Origins

The Official Prequel to the Blockbuster Film

By:
Alan Dean Foster

Narrated by:
Tom Taylorson

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
483

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
452

Story

4 out of 5 stars
450

The
Covenant mission is the most ambitious endeavor in the history of Weyland-Yutani. A ship bound for Origae-6, carrying 2,000 colonists beyond the limits of known space, this is a make-or-break investment for the corporation - and for the future of all mankind. Yet there are those who would die to stop the mission. As the colony ship hovers in Earth orbit, several violent events reveal a deadly conspiracy to sabotage the launch.

5 out of 5 stars

Corporate Espionage, No Monsters

By
Admiralu
on
02-13-18

We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Bobiverse, Book 1

By:
Dennis E. Taylor

Narrated by:
Ray Porter

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
65,067

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
61,071

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
60,944

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

5 out of 5 stars

Ignore the Publisher's Summary! This is Amazing!

By
PW
on
04-12-17

14

By:
Peter Clines

Narrated by:
Ray Porter

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
39,485

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
36,580

Story

4 out of 5 stars
36,586

There are some odd things about Nate’s new apartment. Of course, he has other things on his mind. He hates his job. He has no money in the bank. No girlfriend. No plans for the future. So while his new home isn’t perfect, it’s livable. The rent is low, the property managers are friendly, and the odd little mysteries don’t nag at him too much. At least, not until he meets Mandy, his neighbor across the hall, and notices something unusual about her apartment. And Xela’s apartment. And Tim’s. And Veek’s.

3 out of 5 stars

There Could Have Been Fourteen Better Endings

By
Katie
on
03-11-13

The Singularity Trap

By:
Dennis E. Taylor

Narrated by:
Ray Porter

Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
16,227

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
15,178

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
15,146

When Ivan Pritchard signs on as a newbie aboard the
Mad Astra, it's his final, desperate stab at giving his wife and children the life they deserve. He can survive the hazing of his crewmates, and how many times, really, can near-zero g make you vomit? But there's another challenge looming out there, in the farthest reaches of human exploration, that will test every man, woman and AI on the ship - and will force Ivan to confront the very essence of what makes him human.

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent.

By
Amy Snider
on
06-13-18

Columbus Day

Expeditionary Force, Book 1

By:
Craig Alanson

Narrated by:
R.C. Bray

Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
27,804

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
26,452

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
26,393

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the Native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon came ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There went the good old days, when humans got killed only by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved.

5 out of 5 stars

Sci Fi I didn't know I wanted

By
Gary Glenn
on
06-27-17

Publisher's Summary

Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi returns to his best-selling Old Man's War universe with The End of All Things, the direct sequel to 2013's The Human Division.

Humans expanded into space...only to find a universe populated with multiple alien species bent on their destruction. Thus was the Colonial Union formed, to help protect us from a hostile universe. The Colonial Union used the Earth and its excess population for colonists and soldiers. It was a good arrangement...for the Colonial Union. Then the Earth said: no more.

Now the Colonial Union is living on borrowed time - a couple of decades at most before the ranks of the Colonial Defense Forces are depleted and the struggling human colonies are vulnerable to the alien species who have been waiting for the first sign of weakness to drive humanity to ruin. And there's another problem: a group, lurking in the darkness of space, playing human and alien against each other - and against their own kind - for their own unknown reasons.

In this collapsing universe, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson and the Colonial Union diplomats he works with race against the clock to discover who is behind attacks on the Union and on alien races, to seek peace with a suspicious, angry Earth, and to keep humanity's union intact...or else risk oblivion and extinction - and the end of all things.

Critic Reviews

"Tavia Gilbert and William Dufris are disarmingly genial as they trade off narrating chapters. Gilbert, in particular, manages to convey a bird-like alien perfectly in her section, and Dufris is fully believable even as a disembodied brain in control of a spaceship." (
AudioFile)

why a lower rating on performance?

Mr. Dufris did an excellent job as always. Ms. Gilbert's porrayals of male characters had an irritating qualitty as well as lacking differentiation between male characters. Hearing that performance immediately after Dufris's oustanding portrayals of the same charaters resulted in Ms. Gilbert's portions of the narrative becoming difficult to listen to. Even that disparity might have only been slightly irksome if the personal 4th wall breaking acknowledgements from Ms. Gilbert were not included between sections of the book. That sort of thing is appropriate at the end of a book but in the middle it calls attention to the presence of a narrator rather than portrayal of the characters. Those interruptions banished my immersion in the book just as assuredly a bucket of water dumped on me would have. Editing out those 2 interruptions would significantly improve the audio book.

B-O-R-I-N-G

At the end of this audio edition of his latest entry in the “Old Man’s War” series, Scalzi himself comes on to say that he struggled when writing this book. I’d say it shows. This was one of the least engaging books I’ve read in a while. Broken into four large sections, each section reads like an independent novella. Although some of the characters recur, and there is an overall plot arc, each section has different point-of-view characters and explores a different slice of this universe.

The novella structure was not what I found objectionable. What I found strange was that the author decided to tell so much of his story via conversations. The reader is being told, over and over, by the characters, what is going on, rather than actually seeing it happen. For instance, a large chunk of one chapter features a group of politicians arguing about politics. Seriously, how did Scalzi think this was a good idea? There is a reason no one watches C-SPAN. Just imagine C-SPAN in written form and you have the general idea *snore*. In another section, four or five soldiers describe uprisings that have been happening on a variety of planets. It’s pretty thinly veiled commentary on the wars going on in the Middle-East today. There’s some action, but still an awful lot of talk. The last section features—you guessed it—more meetings and politicians talking themselves and the reader to death as they try to solve the dilemma set up in the first three sections of the book.

The best part of the book was the witty banter between some of the characters, notably the army grunts, but even the banter suffered from a sameness that anyone who has read a lot of books by Scalzi will readily recognize. Even the funny moments get a little boring when all the characters have the same razor-sharp wit and zing the bon mots in the exact same way. By the end of the book I was thinking if one more character said “Fair point” I was going to jump out the window.

[I listened to this as an audio book read by Tavia Gilbert and William Dufris, who did a serviceable job with less-than stellar content. It’s hard to make characters sound different when the author writes them all as carbon copies of each other.]

Drooling over the original draft/alternate version

Any additional comments?

While this book pretty much completes and ties up all the loose ends to the Old Man' War series, there is an alternate version of the story that is added as a supplementary addition to the audiobook. In the authors note he mentions how he first started with the alternate story and then for reasons he doesn't explicitly explain, pretty much decided to re-write the story into the book we have now. I would say this book is a good book but felt rushed to me. Many plot lines felt forced in order to just finish the story. Some characters like General Gao and Hafde Sorval feel completely different from their constructs in the previous books. Also many of the major characters from the human division are relagated to almost background scenery. I kept waiting for one of those great/funny conversations between Hardt Schmit & Harry Wilson but it felt like while Hardt is there he almost never speaks. That's not to say it's a bad book, it is definitely above average when compared to other authors. The real problem arose for me when I listened to original story that got shelved and is incorporated as a supplementary section after the book is done. This original draft / alternate version really felt like the book we were supposed to get. It had the feel of the original trilogy and the spirit of the human division stories. Sadly John Scalzi states in his authors notes that he has no intentions to complete this original draft/alternative version. I honestly found myself much more engaged during the supplement than any time listing to the released book. So just to re-iterate, this is a good book that I enjoyed and I'm sure if your a fan of the Old Man's War series, that you will enjoy it too, but I hope that someday Mr Scalzi changes his mind and completes the original draft/alternate version of this book because that small preview was where I found myself truly hooked.

Not worth buying

Probably the worst Scalzi story I've heard/read. Lackluster story, hugely unrealistic conclusion, awful dialogue. In my teens he was my favorite writer, I now realize that was because his dialogue is locked in the 14-16 range. Descriptive writing is still excellent though, definitely Scalzi's strength, a shame this book was so heavily dependent on his mediocre-to-low ability to write dialogue. Expect a lot of snarky wit... From every damn character, it's like they're all clones.

Narration tried hard and I thought they did well, though the quick messages to (the listener? the studio?) were weird and disrupted the flow.

I Shouldn't Get So Happy When Listening to a Book

I loved listening to Old Man's War a few years ago. Lately I've listened to some very good science fiction and raved about it. But, I was so happy being back in this universe which combines witty science fiction and great adventure read by a master narrator that I remember thinking ... I shouldn't be so happy - its just a book. Ultimately this one stands apart from some other excellent SF that has entertained me - so happiness ensued.

The only criticism I have is that John had an alternate beginning for the book that he scrapped as the starting point but couldn't just throw it away. So after the story is over, we hear that "alternate universe" version that just peters out mid story.

The book comes in five parts. John first warns us about the alternate first chapter to be presented at the end. Then, William Dufris takes over and we hear Rafe Daquin's story of being captured and having his body discarded and his brain put in a box to run a ship in service to some nasty characters. How Rafe deals with that and the exposure of a group bent on destroying the human Colonial Union, the Earth and an alien United Nations called the Conclave drives the rest of this impressive book. The next part is read by Tavia Gilbert and introduces us to a powerful alien player in the Conclave called Hafte Sorvalh. This dragged a bit for me because William Dufris part was so excellent - but it in the end it is necessary to give us another perspective. Dufris takes over relaying the rest of the book and I was quite satisfied with how the story was wrapped up.

I purposely did not listen to the alternate first chapter right away, because I wanted to savor the ending of the book. I did the next day and actually would recommend not listening to it. What Scalzi should have done if he wanted this alternate take would be to release this separately and finish it! That is why I took one star off for the story rating.

Listening to Old Man's War and the other books in this series enriches the enjoyment of this book, but you should be able to read this as a stand alone story. If you decide to start with the first book, this reviewer is envious of the journey you are embarking upon.

Dissapoints. I had high expectations though.

The rest of the series was awesome. I dont think John's heart was in this one. The ending seemed to setup a new book. Seems like this series has just become a gravy train for the writer and publisher now.

Performers

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes. changing readers mid book William Dufris performance was excellent as always. I dont know who Tavia Gilbert knows to get put in mid way through and she even threw in a self serving message between chapters her voices and pronunciation also left alot to be desired.

Who was your favorite character and why?

As always Harry Wilson

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Tavia Gilbert and William Dufris ?

No one though I would've not used Tavia Gilbert at all.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I've listened to all the books in the Old Mans War series it was a good conclusion to the series.

24 of 34 people found this review helpful

Sort by:

Overall

2 out of 5 stars

Performance

3 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

JASON

06-27-18

author seemed to have lost interest

The inventiveness of the first 2 books has now long since gone, and the author seems far more concerned now in wacking the listener over the head with his political opinions, (which are truly crowbared into the book) rather than builing an interesting story arc.All the characters are also the same, regardless of gender or species, just being vehicles for the author's opinions. An author interested in the world he had created would surely not have done that? And the loss if a meaningful storyline makes the relentless 'he said' 'she said' ever more gratingThat sameness across the characters is sarcasm and snideness, making it hard to become invested in the primary characters.

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Guy Chapman

09-26-17

Vintage Scalzi

I am giving the narration five stars but the book was so compelling I finished almost all of it on my Kindle. The ending is a bit trite, but I can forgive that because the narrative and characterisation are so good throughout.

Overall

2 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

adele

12-10-15

Pity

I could not finish the book. after part one there was no one I cared for or had sympathy for. I felt like I. .. the reader... had been written out of the book. .I really love all the author s books and had lots of fun working through his amazing talent. This book was thus a tremendous disappointment.

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Annika

12-02-15

Good, but not the best of this series

I love the Old Man's War series and have read most of them twice. This one was a bit bland compared to the rest, though it was also good, but it may also be that I've just read too much of this series. It seemed to cover a lot from some older books under another angle. The most interesting part was the brain in a box part.One thing that tends to stick out is that in many cases the the characters seem to meld together or act alike. It is not so much what they do, but how they get to their conclusions. Also the tempo how people react, seems superfast compared to real life people, but this may also be the "fault" of the reader. At the same time who would like to listen to a book where you have to wait for next sentence for several seconds. So after all it was a good listen and I'll be waiting for the next one.

Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

3 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

ian woodard

09-10-16

tedious writing and at times laughable

its a terrible world were I am aloud voice this personal attack but i felt the author has a huge ego and little talent. I do commend his commitment, and condemn his piers, publishers and press agents. Hollywood needs to do nothing to dumb this down to a movie script. painful.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

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Overall

3 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

3 out of 5 stars

Graham

09-12-18

Overall good but some not so

The first three chapters were a redundancy on previous novels but once you get past them not so bad. It has a very different feel to all the previous novels - more a collection of view points along a time line.